Pressure Washing Business Guide
By Norman B.
About
The Author:
I got my start in the pressure washing business solely by accident. I really mean an accident. I had hurt my back on another job and could no longer do the physical work that was needed. I decided to go to drafting school to become a draftsman. The job I left because of my injury had a draftsman and once he became aware of me going to school for drafting he offered me a job helping him. At the time I thought this was going to be great. He would submit his drawings to the engineer and the engineer would inform him of changes that would need to be made. This is where I came in, the draftsman would send the drawings to me by way of the internet and I would make the changes and send them back to the engineer for approval. Since everything was over the internet I never had to leave my house. I was making $15.00 per hour and it seemed great for awhile until I could not take sitting behind a desk all day and then never leaving my house was starting to drive me crazy. I was just not this type of person. I liked working outside and doing something different every day. I used to roof one day frame the next some days I would pour a slab or do a punch-out. I really missed that at the end of each day that job would be finished and I would be on to something else tomorrow.
Then my sister calls me and says she has a small pressure washer and maybe I could clean driveways until I figured out what I wanted to do. So with a 3000 psi washer that put out about 2.5 to 3.0 gpm you know the kind you can buy at Home Depot I started my pressure washing business. I met this contractor who heard me talking to a friend about my pressure washing business in a store and he asked me if I did construction cleanup. I said yes, having no idea what I was getting myself into. He told me he was building a Burger king and wanted to know what I would charge to clean up the site. Now not having a clue I told him $85.00 which he said ok quickly because after I knew what I was doing I wouldn’t clean a job like that for under $500.00. So the next day I started cleaning up the site. Construction cleanup is a big job. After the landscaper comes in you are the final cleanup. You have to wash down the entire building, sidewalks, drive thru, parking lot etc… Well I got started and about 25% of the way thru my washer died and it was gone for good. I explained to the contractor I couldn’t finish the job because of my washer and he told me to go rent one and he would pay for it. So I rented one and finished the job. Knowing that I under bid the job but still did a great cleaning anyway he ended up paying me $225.00 for my time. He recommended me to the owner of that Burger King and I started cleaning it once a month for $100.00 and within a month had 4 more Burger kings. Now I was making $500.00 per month and it took me about 2 hours each store. I also ended up doing that contractors construction cleanup from then on.
Equipment:
Since we had such great success at our first yard sale we decided to go back to the auction and bid again. This time we looked through each box to see if it had anything unusual or old looking in it before we bid for it. The boxes are about 2’ x 3’ x 2’ and are packed with all kinds of different stuff. Most of the items come from estate sales, storage units that were abandoned etc… so you never know what you will find. When we got home from the auctions we would go through the boxes and anything we thought was unusual we set aside then we cleaned up the remaining items to make them look as good as possible and had another yard sale. Again this was a success. We now decided to start having one huge yard sale each month instead of one a week. We made $500.00 dollars on the big yard sale and were feeling pretty good about ourselves.
After I broke that Home Depot pressure washing machine I purchased a 5ft x 10ft. utility trailer a 250 gallon water tank, 3000 psi 5 gpm hot water washer hoses and this became my pressure washing rig. I used this for quite some time until I learned more and more about cleaning. When cleaning it is not the psi that cleans it is the gpm (gallons per minute) your pump puts out. So I purchased a new hot water washer that was 3000 psi with 9 gpm output. Now this was powerful and cleaned fast. It was worth every penny. You have to go with hot water because it will clean the job in 1/3 of the time you will clean with cold water. I used my 1 ton van to pull my rig. This was great because I could keep things dry and lock them up when necessary.
- I had a 25 horse power Kohler engine.
- Wayne oil burner heater.
- General pump.
- 250 gallon water tank.
- 2 hose reels.
- 4000 psi hose (anything less the heat will ruin)
- Water hose commercial grade to fill the water tank.
- 20 inch surface cleaner.
- 30 inch surface cleaner.
- Oscillating power head.
- 0, 15, 25, 40 degree tips.
- Pump sprayer to manually apply chemicals.
- Chemical injection system.
- Gas and Diesel fuel cans.
- Spare 3/8 and 5/16 o-rings.
- 1 ton van to pull the trailer rig.
- De-greaser and chlorine.
- Rags.
- Hand tools to fix unexpected problems with the rig.
The oscillating head runs about $125.00 if you use a 0 degree tip instead of the oscillating tip you could right your name in concrete it is so strong. The 0 degree tip is great for knocking down a wasp nest that is out of reach. When you want to rinse you use a larger say 40 degree tip because it will be lower pressure and spread farther out like a fan to give you a bigger area to sweep with. Tips are color coated so you can easily tell them apart 40, 25, 15, 0 degree tips.
I use the surface cleaner to clean decks also. 20 inch surface cleaner. I also have a steel eagle which is a 30 inch surface cleaner. You can’t use the steel eagle for roofs because it is too big to handle but for sidewalks and driveways it was the way to go. The smaller one cleans deeper but the larger one covers more area and it is made of aluminum so it is not too heavy.
Problems That Happen:
Always purchase a belt driven rig. One thing that happens over time is you will need to change the belts. One goes from the engine to the pump and the other from the engine to the heater. They can be very difficult to get to so make sure you have your mechanic change both at the same time. The belts are cheap compared to the labor.
You may hear your pump start to chatter. You need to get used to how your rig sounds because if your pump starts to chatter you are running out of water. Usually someone turned off your water supply by accident or a hose broke etc... If you don’t stop you will damage your pump.
The o-rings break, split or go bad in the quick disconnects where the tips go in the wand or the pressure hose hooks up. Make sure you have spares.
Always check your oil levels each night before you start the engine up. No oil soon no engine. Change the oil when due.
You will need to have your pump rebuilt every 2 years or maybe sooner if you work more. The pump comes with a warranty so usually you just have to pay for labor.
How the Pressure Washing Rig Works:
When cleaning with a zero degree tip, make sure you use the oscillating head. Zero degree tips are good for knocking down wasp nests that are up high things like that. If you use a zero degree tip you have to be really careful you can right your name in concrete so you can see it can do a lot of damage. Always use the oscillating head which sprays the water out in an oscillating pattern that will speed up your cleaning. Never run heat thru this head because it has plastic gears in it and heat will ruin it. Also always point the head down before giving it pressure so the moving parts in the head can seat like they are supposed to.
If you are cleaning surface areas use a surface cleaner. This has a big head on it like a buffing machine. It has a bar underneath that has a tips in each end so when you put pressure to it the bar spin and the pressure makes the surface cleaner hover of the ground. This makes cleaning flat areas like driveways and sidewalks much faster because you can clean anywhere from 20 to 30 inches of area at once. Because the surface cleaner has 2 tips instead of one it cleans with less pressure so on tough stains sometimes you will still need the wand.
Using the chemical injection system is a must. You will clean everything faster and better with chemicals. On really heavy stains you want to use a hand pump sprayer that has degreaser in full strength and hit the spots first. Then you switch to your wand and the chemical tip and spray with the injection system. How this works is first you never run chemicals thru your pump you use an injection system which is one end of a hose stuck in your 3 or 5 gallons of degreaser or chlorine and the other end is in the injection system which is hooked into your pressure line. Whenever you put the chemical tip in the wand the pressure drops because the tip is large. This automatically triggers the injection system to siphon chemical out of the 3 or 5 gallon container and mixes it with the water coming out of your gun at a 15 to 1 ratio. Once you get done spraying on the chemical you just switch out the chemical tip in the wand to a cleaning tip and once the pressure increases the chemical stops and you just get water. This makes things fast because you do not have to keep going back to the trailer to spray on chemicals it only takes a second to switch tips when needed.
Cleaning With Chemicals:
Chlorine is great for cleaning siding, roofs, outside furniture, campers, mobile homes and more. When using the injection system all chemicals come out at a 15 to 1 ratio. This means for every 1 gallon of chemicals sprayed it is mixed with 15 gallons of water. I have never hurt any plants or grass using chlorine to clean with.
Cleaning roofs, I always use chlorine. Use your chemical tip and spray the chlorine on starting at the bottom of the roof working your way towards the peak. This way you will not be walking in the chlorine which can be very slippery. When cleaning most anything else using chlorine you want to start at the bottom or the low spot and spray it on so when you rinse you are starting at the top rinsing down.
Degreaser is used for anything that has petroleum based stains such as oil or cooking grease etc… Always use a hand pump sprayer to spray the heavily stained areas first and let them soak for 10 minutes while you spray the rest using your chemical tip. The reason you use the hand pump sprayer is because this will be the full strength degreaser. The chemical tip mixes the degreaser with water to a 15 to 1 ratio. All your commercial jobs will most likely need degreaser and most driveways. The degreaser makes concrete brighter white as it dries it brightens it. The degreaser is a must. When you start cleaning you start on the end that is the lowest and spray your degreaser on moving towards the higher end. So now when you start cleaning you are always rinsing downhill. The best thing to do is try cleaning the area each month in a different direction and time yourself this does two things, it keeps you sane when you are out all night by yourself and you will find out what works best for you.
When purchasing your chlorine you can buy it at your pool supply companies. When purchasing your degreaser it is much cheaper to purchase it in the powder form to mix into a 55 gallon drum. I started out purchasing the degreaser in 5 gallon containers for $35.00 each. Then when you get smart you can purchase the industrial degreaser form your local industrial supplies store in powder form that will make 55 gallons of degreaser for $200.00 that is a $185.00 savings. You just dump the bag of powder degreaser along with a coloring agent they supply with it into your 55 gallon drum and fill it with water. Stir it up and now you pump out your concentrate that you just made into 5 gallon containers that you can take with you.
License, Entity & Taxes:
I purchased a painters license. The license is about $35.00 per year. The reason I purchased a painters license instead of a pressure washing license is insurance costs. With a painters license you can pressure wash and liability insurance runs $500.00 per year. Check with NetQuote to be sure it is still the same price. With a pressure washing license insurance runs about $2000.00 per year. I also liked the fact that I could paint if I wanted.
I never had the need to incorporate so I just stayed a sole proprietor. I did hire help once in awhile when cleaning tile roofs. If you stay under $600.00 per year paying someone you can hire them as temp help and not deal with the taxes. You can also get a person from a hiring agency and they deal with all the workman’s compensation and payroll taxes.
I always kept my business at the size I could handle myself. I was always busy and made a good living with few problems. Just categorize all your bills and give the sheet to an accountant at the end of the year and $225.00 later my taxes would be done.
I always had my dog with me and I wrote off dog food and vet bills because he was my security dog. I always wrote off my clothing laundry detergent etc... It is all part of the job. If I took aspirin I saved the receipt and put it down as medical. Categorize everything. I used my garage as my business and you can right off that. I also wrote off one room as an office.
What to Charge:
First off I never took a pressure washing job for under $100.00. It just is not worth it to take your rig to a location and clean something for under $100.00.
With today’s fuel prices you have to factor this cost in carefully. The heater runs off of diesel the pressure washing engine runs off of gas. The Wayne heater has actual flames that burn under coils of water. To run the heater all night cleaning would burn through about 15 gallons of diesel set on 125 degrees. The pressure washing engine would also burn through 15 to 20 gallons of gas. So you can see with gas and diesel prices the way they are you would have to charge an extra fuel charge to cover this fluctuating overhead.
One company that was building a Kentucky Fried Chicken next to a job I was doing and I did there construction cleanup for $300.00. I normally charge $500.00 because in a construction cleanup you are pressure washing everything from the building to sidewalks drive-thru and parking lots. You go in after the landscaping crew and clean every square inch. It took me 17 hours the first day and 8 the next to clean it. You are probably asking why I would do it so cheap. This is how you get in the door. I cleaned every job they had from then on and I would get from $500.00 to $2000.00. Plus it gives you the chance to set up cleaning the actual business site on a monthly basis for $175.00.
I would clean small roofs up to say 1800 sq ft for $150.00 and larger ones for $250.00 for roofs between 1800 and 3000 sq ft. I would charge more if it was the real deep barrel tile roofs because I would have to go over it sometimes three times to get it clean. Sometimes you could clean a 1600 sq. ft roof in 2 hour if it is not bad.
Pressure washing pavers the sand comes up and goes right back down when you rinse. Usually you will end up sealing the pavers. I always let them buy the sealer and I would roll it on. That way they could buy as good as sealer as they wanted and I would put it on as thick as needed. Just don’t go to thick or it won’t dry, better two do it twice if necessary. I would charge $150.00 to seal it.
If you want to build a good pressure washing business you will have some jobs that you just bid wrong for whatever reason. The one thing you have to remember is no matter what you are making if you accepted the job you have to do the best you can even if you are losing money or breaking even.
I used to pressure wash Bennigan’s for $175.00. I would do the walkways, the dumpster area and the canopies. You use chlorine to clean the canopies.
It would take me 3 hours to pressure wash a Bennigan’s that I charged $175.00 for. You always want to do more because someone is always trying to get your account. So when the kitchen asked me if I would clean the mats I always said yes just bring them out and I would clean them. Sometimes they would bring out the filter grilles that go over the stoves. I would always clean these items at no extra charge, it only took 15 minutes and you don’t have to worry about keeping your client.
Because I always spent a little more time doing the job, it wasn’t get in and get out the managers always liked me and I had good job security.
I would do 3 Bennigan’s in one night. I started just before they closed in the back cleaning the dumpster area and then when they closed I would start on the front. They did not open until 11:00am so it was a long night but it paid well.
Don’t forget because of fuel costs you would have to add at least $75.00 to every quote I have listed.
Advertising:
Word of mouth is the best advertising. Someone you know will always know someone who will give you a try. This is how I ended up pressure washing Bennigan’s. I coached a kid whose mother was a waitress there. I had tried to get them to give me a chance before but never had any luck. One day they needed cleaning that day and their regular cleaner was not available and the waitress said I know someone and this happened to be the day a hurricane had just went through and they wanted the store cleaned as I was cleaning it the storm turned and came back again so I ended up cleaning the store twice for $100.00 but it was spotless and the next day they asked me what I charged and I said I really needed to get $150.00 and he said you are worth it and I started cleaning that Bennigans.
Now what is great is that the managers have meetings every month and many times they get switched between stores. So the month they would be at my store I was pressure washing the other managers would notice the difference and I would pick up a few more stores and then my manger would get switched to a store with some problems and he would say I have to get my guy in here for the pressure washing and before you knew it I had 6 Bennigans. When the mangers get together they talk about things that are working for them and my guy would say my pressure washing guy does a great job and always shows even when I need something right away and it is short notice.
At night I would get people drive up and ask me to clean their rims on their car or truck it would take me 2 minutes and I would usually always get $10.00 because I would just say pay me what you think is fair. People would stop and ask if you cleaned roofs or driveways, I would just give them my card and the next day I would have someone calling me up to do a job. Get 250 free business cards. When they see you doing commercial work they automatically think you are trustworthy.
I always got to know my managers and BS with them. Especially since I had a story on how I got into this business gave me something to talk to them about so you can make it personal.
I would spend $300.00 advertising in the paper and it would always pay for the ad but I would get more work from word of mouth and giving a break to the first person so everyone else could see my work. I also tried to do work for a referral company. They would sell the job and if I wanted it I had to pay them a certain price to get it. This never worked well and there were always problems on what the customer was promised and what I was told to do.
Helpful Tips:
As long as it was not lightning out I cleaned rain or shine.
Chemicals will cut your cleaning time in half. (Chlorine and Degreaser).
Took about one year until I was so busy I turned work down.
The first thing you do when you get to a job is start filling your water tank. You always start out heading to your first job with the tank empty. Once you do your first job you can leave about 50 gallons in it to head to the next job. You get to know how long it takes to do your job. With my setup I can empty this 200 gallon tank in 20 minutes.
If you need to get oil stains up I would spray some degreaser right out of the bottle full strength and with using heat the stains come right up. Heavy areas you always hit with the degreaser at full strength.
Places like the entrance to the restaurants and heavy stains you would spray degreaser on first to let it work while you start unloading your hoses and getting set up to start. Just remember always hook up your hose to their water and start filling your external tank.
You want to have a shutoff valve that you can attach just before the wand so you can turn off the water without walking back to your rig.
I use the surface cleaner to clean roofs. It is much faster and does a great job. You just have to be careful when you stop cleaning that you position the cleaner in a way that the blade does not hit the roof until it stops spinning. Once you get used to using the surface cleaner to clean roofs you will love it. Because it is 4 feet in front of you when you clean you never have to get close to the edge of the roof.
Then when you start the surface cleaner clean the first path by the peak so being careful because until you have one section cleaned you will have to stand in the chlorine which can be slippery. Once you clean that first path across the top by the ridge you can turn around and always stand where you just cleaned as you move down the roof.
Very seldom did I break tiles. If you understand how a tile is put down you know that under the inside of the barrel towards the open end they put a scoop of concrete to hold it in place this is where you step when walking on a tile roof.
You have to be careful when you decide to stop cleaning the roof with the surface cleaner that you don’t just turn off the pressure because the unit will drop down and the blade keeps spinning for a moment after you stop and you will damage the unit or roof so you must prop it up or hold it up when you stop the pressure.
When you use the surface cleaner to clean with you will not get the edge tile clean. Many companies won’t clean it. I always cleaned the edge all you have to do is walk around on the ground with the gun and spray off the edge.
I always wanted to make my roof look cleaner than everyone else's in the neighborhood and you do that by making sure you get the roof clean. I always walk around the house and wash everything down also washed off the a/c pad, fascia rinse the walls this did not take hardly anytime at all but it would get you 3 more jobs in the same neighborhood. You rinse the driveway not clean it but rinse it down all the way to the storm drain.
Many guys only worry about what you see from the ground because the home owner is not going to climb up on the roof to look. But if you don’t clean it good it won’t stay clean as long because it is a fungus or algae and it will spread.
I would only seal it if asked, but most people would not spend the money and I personally do not think it makes a difference. But if need to do it you can just use a hand sprayer to spray it on. I have never sealed a roof but I was an affordable person and did not try to up sell everything I always treated my customers fair.
Dumpster area and business entrances use pump sprayer with full strength degreaser. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes and it will basically cleanup with a hose it works so well.
When you are going to paint always use the 0 degree oscillating head because it will remove the loose paint, then prime and paint. If you only rinse the house and paint it won’t last. Because I did such a better job cleaning and prepping the house I used to get asked to paint frequently also.
Oscillating head has plastic gears do not use heat. It also has a porcelain tip so you do not want to smack it on the ground.
They do make a smaller oscillating that has brass gears and you can use heat with that. I never had a situation that I needed heat and the oscillating head. This head is so strong you have to be careful you do not run it across your foot if you like your toes.
I used to carry a tennis ball with me because your hand gets awful tired hanging on to the wand. I you take the tennis ball and squeeze it to fit the handle to keep the gun on your hand will not get as tired. Using the tennis ball if you drop the wand the ball will bounce out and shut it off.
When in the wealthy areas of town when they call you to clean their driveways or pavers you can use the large 30” surface cleaner because most people who live in these areas do not have stains on their driveways. These are gravy jobs.
When cleaning a lot of gum you can crank the heat up to 155 degrees or so. Never take it past 160 degrees because most hoses were only rated for 160. I always purchased the 4000 psi hoses anything less the heat would kill them.
You have to be careful with the surface cleaner and pay attention to what you are going over because it will whip things out under the head.
You have to make sure the hose that goes to your pump is not higher than your low water level on your external tank because it works off gravity.
Catchy slogan “We Work Well Under Pressure”.
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